


Just Breathe

by Calamity_Hero_Awakens



Series: Reverse Uno Card [4]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Tragedy, Asphyxiation, Character Death, Enemies, Enemy Lovers, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Male Sheik (Legend of Zelda), Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Secret Relationship, Sheik (Legend of Zelda) is a Separate Character, Tags Are Hard, Violence, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, Yiga Sheik
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:53:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28540617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calamity_Hero_Awakens/pseuds/Calamity_Hero_Awakens
Summary: Link had never given much thought to how he would die but he supposed asphyxiation wasn’t a terrible way to go. In fact, if it was at the hands of his lover, he was pretty sure it might even be enjoyable.
Relationships: Link/Sheik (Legend of Zelda)
Series: Reverse Uno Card [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1843972
Kudos: 15





	Just Breathe

Link had never given much thought to how he would die but he supposed asphyxiation wasn’t a terrible way to go. In that moment, he was pretty sure it might even be enjoyable, though that might have been his oxygen deprived brain speaking. On second thought, yeah, that’s probably exactly what was happening considering he was slowly losing feelings in his limbs and his vision was spotty at best; when it had gotten to that point though, he had just let his eyes close. He knew that the Yiga straddling his chest was probably heavy, but he couldn’t feel much past his collar bones anymore.

“You should have stayed away!” the man yelled and Link cracked his eyes open long enough to catch sight of the tan face that hovered over his, white hair slung over the man’s shoulder in a chaotic braid and angry tears falling from ruby eyes. The only way he could tell Sheik’s tears apart from the drenching rain was by the warmth they carried.

Link could have fought back, he could have prevented himself from being knocked flat on his back after a quick battle, if only he’d drawn his blade. Even though the Sheik’s sudden presence had been a surprise to the hero, he could have pulled his blade and fought back. Instead, he had allowed Sheik to snatch the legendary sword from his back and cast it aside, leaving him practically defenseless against the armed ninja.

“You just couldn’t leave it alone, could you?” Sheik rhetorically asked, increasing the pressure of his hands around Link’s throat, slowly suffocating him. Link could vaguely feel the warm drops of tears as they hit his face and he opened his mouth as if to reply but no words came out. The panic that had held him in its grip at first had subsided when he had grown used to the feeling of warm hands on his throat, slowly crushing his windpipe. The feeling was still uncomfortable and his body was screaming at him to fight back -  _ I can’t breathe, dammit!  _ \- but Link remained still, unsure if he could even lift his arms which were thrown above his head.

“I told you…”

Link could hear the angry Yiga footsoldier as he sniffed and his voice broke, his arms trembling though his grip remained unwavering.

“I told you to stay away from me. Now look. Look what happens when you don’t listen!”

More tears splattered Link’s face and his lungs burned. Perhaps he should have listened, should have stayed away from Sheik and not gotten involved with him. But if he’d done that, he never would have found someone so in tune to himself, someone who - to a lesser degree - understood the struggle of trying to be someone you aren’t.

Sheik had told him multiple times that they couldn’t be together; with Link being the hero and Sheik being a servant of Kohga, it would never work. The only thing that could happen was misery and plenty of it. One way or another, someone was bound to die, though Sheik had honestly been convinced it would be himself. Link was The Legendary Hero; he couldn’t be brought to his end by a simple soldier. It was so boring, so unbefitting of a death for someone so remarkable. Sheik had thought about the possibilities many times, often after the two had spent a night under the stars, laying side by side with their hands entwined. Link had tried many times to talk about the future with Sheik but the man would never have it, stopping the hero in his tracks and changing the topic or falling silent altogether.

The way Sheik had it figured, Link would either defeat Master Kohga, Calamity Ganon, or Sheik would die in battle against him. Of course there was always the possibility of the hero himself dying, but never against Sheik. That was too simple, too easy, too unheroic. No, if Link were to die, it would be in a grand battle against Calamity Ganon or hundreds of Guardians or the entirety of the Yiga Clan. There was simply no way the hero of legend would be choked to death by a meager Yiga soldier, especially the one that loved him.

“Why couldn’t you-” Sheik was interrupted by his own choked sob and it was a few painful moments - physically for Link, but emotionally for the both of them - before Sheik could find it in him to speak again. “Why couldn’t you listen? Why couldn’t you leave?”

Link’s arm was moving, or at least trying to, and Sheik simply watched through blurry eyes as the hero found enough strength to drag one of his arms through the dirt so that it rested on his chest. The limb shook as he turned his hand so that his palm was out and brought his middle and ring finger down, slowly pushing his hand out from his chest toward the body that was poised over his. Only a second later, Link’s hand fell limp, his unmoving chest sandwiched between the dirt and Sheik’s own body.

Shaky breaths rattled in and out of Sheik’s lungs as he finally released the other man’s throat, sitting back on the chest beneath him. His arms hung limply at his sides, tears continuing to fall down his cheeks as the rain thoroughly drenched every inch of his and Link’s bodies.

He couldn’t look. He didn’t want to see the hero’s face, his blue eyes closed and entire body finally relaxed. Link’s dark golden hair was drenched, beginning to mix with the soggy dirt, and Sheik simply couldn’t look. He didn’t want to see him that way; that wasn’t the last image of Link he wanted in his mind, though the true last image wasn’t any better.

Wrecked sobs and hiccups erupted from Sheik’s mouth and he slapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes pinched shut as he sobbed, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave. Not yet. Not after the man he loved had just used his last ounces of strength to say “I love you”.

He wasn’t ready to leave. Not yet, not ever.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Just Breathe by The Unlikely Candidates:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PZCjESs5es


End file.
